Norway’s Hunter Group has entered into a three-year back-to-back charter for a 2016-built eco-design, scrubber-fitted very large crude carrier with an undisclosed company.
Delivery of the vessel from what the company described as an “internationally renowned counterparty” is expected to take place during March/April 2024.
The company will charter in the VLCC at a fixed rate of $51,000 per day, before subsequently chartering it out on a floating index-linked spot rate contract. The index-linked spot rate, which on January 16 was around $56,000 per day.
When the vessel is delivered, the company will have two eco-design and scrubber-fitted VLCCs on similar three-year back-to-back charters. The first charter was announced in late November last year.
At the time, that marked Hunter’s return to the tanker business following the sale of its VLCC fleet for $383m in June 2022. Since then, the Norwegian firm has been focused on developing LCO2 carriers in partnership with DNV and Vedam Design.
“We will continue to monitor the tanker markets, hunting for more accretive opportunities. The order book for newbuild VLCCs is at a 30-year low, oil demand is growing, a substantial portion of the fleet is approaching retirement age and the number of vessels that can be delivered in the next three years is limited by shipyards being fully booked and focusing on higher margin segments,” said Erik A.S. Frydendal, CEO of Hunter Group ASA.
